Purchase now at half price. £19.97 £9.97 for a limited time only. These are designed to be used in Photoshop.

Having a curated feed with a style that flows seamlessly throughout, isn’t something that just happens.

For anyone trying to grow their audience, their engagement, and quite simply, their Instagram, you’ll know all too well how complex this can be. Will that photo clash with the last? Do I need to add some blank space? Is it starting to look too bare? Even something as small as an extra 0.3 desaturation can lead to an Instagram meltdown, image annoyance (when one image deviates from the others and brings you to despair) and image deletion (when you go back and delete an image in a fury). I’ve been there – if you don’t believe me, scroll back to the beginning of the year to witness it first hand. And there are still times now – when I think I’ve finally found my stride – I’ll look at my feed and suddenly realise that it’s heading in a direction I don’t love, and I have to make a quick u-turn to get it back on the right path. It’s mind boggling. And yes, this might sound slightly fanatical to those of you who don’t obsess over what your next Instagram post will look like, and understandably makes the Instagram community sound completely bonkers (we’re not really, promise); but for all of you that are deep into it, you’ll know.

BeforeImage Set 2After

BeforeImage Set 1After

Purchase now at half price. £19.97 £9.97 for a limited time only.

“How do you edit your images?”

This is a question that gets asked daily, so I’m going to give you the chance to purchase a collection of tailor-made Photoshop Presets. This post will give you an idea of how I create the photos for my @allthatisshe Instagram feed. As with most photos, it all stems from an idea, a lightning bolt of inspiration, or turning the mundane everyday into something rather beautiful. I’ll talk about where I get my inspiration from in another post, but once I’ve conjured up a plan, looked at what my feed ‘needs’ (another subject I’ll concentrate on in a future post) and sourced any props, the shooting begins. For all of my photos, we use the Nikon D5500. We only started using it a few months ago, but with it’s easy to use interface, sharp photo quality and its varied angle touch screen (perfect for the above style shots that we capture so much), it’s surpassed all other cameras that we’ve used in the past – we’re huge Nikon fans now. If I’m featuring in an image, then it’s Dominic who’s behind the camera while I sit/lie/stand in position until he captures my ‘candid’ moment. You may have already guessed by now that the majority of my shots are staged (shocking, I know); they’re pre-planned and aren’t posted instantaneously. I still take inspiration from my day-to-day life, of course, but my house is never as tidy as that small square shows, my cooking attempts aren’t as organised as they look, and my morning cups of tea don’t look half as lovely, or feel quite as relaxing. In real life – not Instagram life – my croissants are rarely eaten from delicate bone china plates with pretty floral motifs, but instead from Penny’s garishly bright, plastic IKEA plates. They’re also not enjoyed while sitting at my rustic wooden table top, listening to birdsong; instead, I’m usually chasing both girls around the house in an attempt to get them ready (which is probably why my house is always messy, because croissant flakes).

Once the cup of tea is cold, Dominic has fallen off the bed, and the blood has drained from my arm because I’ve held a book in front of my face for too long, the chosen shot is opened in Photoshop for a tidy up. There the image is straightened, cropped, and any imperfections are removed – dust, stains on clothes, the wrinkles around my eyes. Previously, I would have then added it to my VSCO app to apply filters, but my nights were quickly becoming all about Instagram – even the thrill of a highly addictive TV series wasn’t enough to stop me burying my head in my phone – so I wanted to reduce my posting time. And so, the ‘ATIS Photoshop filters‘ were born. By this point, I’d already established a cohesive look throughout my feed, so these filters weren’t designed to give me a range of different effects, they were simply designed to create a similar final effect on any photo that we took. There are 12 filters which have each been subtly modified to cope with different kinds of images; dark, mid tone and light. So ultimately, no matter what the original photo looks like, I can still achieve the same final effect.

“Do I need to be a Photoshop guru to use these filters?“

Well – quite simply – no! The good thing about this action set is that it’s very easy to use. And to make sure you have a smooth ride with it, I’ve put together detailed directions on installing and using the filters in Photoshop (which you’ll be emailed after purchasing). Once set up, you’ll be able to apply each of the 12 filters with a single click. I hope these are as useful to you as they continue to be for me! Enjoy x

Purchase now at half price. £19.97 £9.97 for a limited time only.

TAGS

‘Mazin! Thank you from this expert faffer over here. Anything to save a bit of time! Looking forward to the next post too. I’m relying on ‘capture the moment’ shots at the moment but the inspiring moments are a bit thin on the ground when it’s a bleak January day. Anything to help the planning process would be much appreciated.

Anytime. I’m an expert at procrastination – it’s what I do best – so any help to quicken up any area of my life is always welcomed. I’m busy writing an ‘Inspiration’ style post, right now. Hopefully, I should get it finished by the weekend (just as long as I don’t waste my days finding other meaningless tasks to do, that is 😉 ). As for Dominic, I’ll pop him on a train and send him down for you. xx

Berna

I really enjoy your posts. Thank you for sharing your tricks of the trade with us. On the examples above though, your images labeled ‘before’ look more like the ones you post than the ones labeled ‘after’. It could be my eyes playing a trick! Congratulations on your back to back instagram features too!

Thank you so much, Berna, glad you enjoy them. Are you viewing them on your phone, the slider image is created more towards a laptop or desktop viewing, so, unfortunately, doesn’t appear as seamlessly on the phone. You need to click the image for it to slide correctly – so sorry about that, it’s not your eyes playing tricks on you 🙂

Emily

Siobhan

Hi Dominique. Really adore your IG – and your eBook was really so useful. Thank you for sharing it!
Re your photoshop filters – have you come across an Idiots Guide to Photoshop that you would recommend?
With best wishes,
Siobhan

With Photoshop, YouTube tends to be your best friend. There’s an extensive amount of content on there aimed at beginners – Photoshop Tutorials by Phlern is pretty good https://www.youtube.com/user/PhlearnLLC. Hope that helps x

Tae

Thank you! Although the price states £9.97 on my site, it should convert it into dollars when you reach the PayPal checkout. If not, drop me and email and we can try and sort it out direct. They’re not available for Lightroom, I’m afraid; it’s a software that I don’t use so wouldn’t know where to start creating presets for it. xx

JAGUAR1312

I’m reading your blogs for days now and I can’t say how unique and incredible it is, that you are sharing your talent, your art, your whole know-how and even your lovely, private life and thoughts with us. And that esspecially by saying “I’m not perfect”. I mean thats really brave and so honest. People would feel so much better, if there would be more “Dominiques” around them. You are a truly inspirition and I really like to thank you for that. And everytime I do read your blogs (over and over again), I feel so much better as a mommy with limits in her power, not in her love. Go on like this – you’re great!